Narratives of chronic pain from armed forces veterans
This PhD thesis explores the experiences of 14 veterans of the UK Armed Forces who live with chronic pain. While there is a wealth of data exploring chronic pain in Armed Forces veterans, the existing literature overwhelmingly views chronic pain through a quantitative lens which does not explore the depth of chronic pain lived experience as a result of this; therefore, it is unclear how veterans live with and manage their chronic pain. Participants' stories of living with chronic pain were collected and analysed using dialogical narrative analysis and the analytical lens of autobiographical time, to detail veterans’ autobiographical stories of living with chronic pain, and how they use these stories to make sense of their pain experience in the context of their identity as a veteran. The analysis identifies that the participants understood and made sense of their chronic pain experience through three distinct storytelling phases. The first of these were stories of the military body, and this situated a career that was marked by physicality and the churn of life within the military institution. The second phase of storytelling was about the stigmatised body. These stories situate the attitudes toward pain and weakness within the military and the consequences of showing that the military body is infallible, which in turn inform stoic attitudes toward pain and personal pain management. The final phases of storytelling were told about the moving body, stories about the moving body were about making sense of a new body with pain, how some movement is avoided, and the consequences of this on identity. And how movement is used to understand, learn, and respond to and from their bodies on any given day. This is the first in-depth qualitative study that explores the lived experiences of veterans with chronic pain. It found that stories about chronic pain were told in the context of military experience and how the culture of the military shapes attitudes toward chronic pain, while movement was a keyway in which participants live with and manage their chronic pain.
Abstract: The unique demands of military life can adversely impact romantic relationships; however, research has mainly focused on these adverse outcomes at one-time point, overlooking changes over time or potential positive outcomes. Using a subsample of 3,845 male and female military personnel and veterans from a large UK dataset, this study examined positive and negative changes in relationship satisfaction between two-time points (2007–2009; 2014–2016). Most participants reported no change in their relationship satisfaction, suggesting stability − 8% reported a positive change and 10% a negative change. Positive change was associated with being in a long-term relationship, alcohol misuse remission, and persistent alcohol misuse. Negative change was associated with the onset of mental health problems (probable PTSD, CMD, or alcohol misuse) and having children under 18. Some factors, like increasing age, childhood family relationship adversity, and mental health problems, were associated with both positive and negative changes in relationship satisfaction. This study highlights the complexity of factors associated with relationship satisfaction among military personnel and veterans, with some experiencing positive changes, as well as negative changes over time.